norsairius

Not too many updates to offer in downtown Milwaukee-land. Signal is about the same as it was last week - not too good. My phone flips to 1x more often and stays there longer, if not for most of the day, when I actually got an indicated 3G most of the day a couple weeks ago. Granted, response times (ping) and speeds were hardly usable. I can barely grab emails as it is. My battery just gets killed every day with the weak signal. Bringing my charger cable to work with me has become a regular habit. I wonder if that's because of more work going on or if there's just more subscribers hitting the network. In any case, it doesn't look good here. Speed Tests aren't even worth attempting right now. My hope is that work will receive more priority around here given the state of the service quality. Alternatively, I hope a lot of the work is done and the towers are just waiting to be turned on. That rumored October time frame for this area is closing quickly as we'll be hitting November next week. I'm not trying to sound like a complainer, but these are just the facts. The network isn't that usable downtown and hasn't been for the most part since I joined Sprint last year.

Well, my iPhone has indicated "1x" in the top left corner for the majority of this morning in downtown Milwaukee. This is not normal compared to recent performance where data was every slow, but at least reliable. So perhaps that means there's more work going on?

I think a network that advertises unlimited data is basically asking for bandwidth hogs to join the network. I would use more of the bandwidth if I could, but the capability just isn't there because of the lack of service.I was trying to provide some objectivity in my post through some test results. Spotting panels and such is more difficult in an urban environment so there isn't really a better way for me to provide updates or feedback on network performance as the improvements to the network continue to progress. If Sprint can't handle some speed tests, they're in for a while whole different world of trouble when people start looking at pictures on Facebook or Instagram, streaming music on Pandora, or watching videos on Netflix and YouTube. I view the speed tests as being relatively low impact compared to what everyone else would rather be doing on the network. Also consider that power users or more tech-conscious users will be the ones actually bothering to use Sensorly or run speed tests. I would bet that such users are a minority among the masses of Sprint subscribers, or subscribers of any network. The perception of the demographic is likely to be skewed here because that minority is also the type who would typically go through the effort to register and participate in these forums. Exactly. In any case, service seemed a bit more degraded today, but that's because there's a farmer's market type event in the area on Wednesdays and service tends to degrade with the increased population there. That said, even with the larger population there, service didn't degrade as badly as it had on Wednesdays previously, so that's a nice improvement.

Well, for what it's worth, service has been a bit more consistent downtown lately. I'd previously been unable to do any speed tests more often than not. The vast majority of them would fail entirely. It feels like over the past few days or so I've actually been able to do a few and get some okay speeds. Pings have ranged anywhere from maybe 160-400ms and speeds have been between 15-40KB/s down. It's not stellar, but it's been better, if only slightly. Of course, just as I write this, a speed test just came up with 3700 ms ping, 0.2 KB/s download speeds, and oddly ~83 KB/s upload. Another one right after: 4500 ms ping, 11.2 KB/s download, 0 KB/s upload. Not even kidding, just 2 minutes before these, I got 370 ms ping, 39.5 KB/s download, and 2 KB/s upload. On the bright side of things, the tests succeeded rather than completely timing out. So more tests have been succeeding lately. I hope that theory about tower work being done and Sprint waiting to turn them all on simultaneously is true. The relief will then at least be all at once as opposed to gradual, which may actually be a better thing from an overall experience standpoint (as opposed to being slowly teased with a slow increase to better service).

Gahhh, I really can't wait for Milwaukee proper to get some updated cells turned on. I'd even like some 800 data on at least, but if LTE is ready, by all means, pleaaaase turn that on. My running theory is that a lot of towers in Milwaukee may be ready (I haven't seen the maps), but that perhaps Sprint wants to wait until it can turn more of them on at once to provide more reliable, consistent service for an overall better launch experience. I only say this because of that big purple hole surrounded by orange on Sprint's coverage map can't possibly mean that they've done NOTHING for Milwaukee, especially when I've seen LTE pop up a few times. So let's doooo this!

Thanks for the heads up! The purple bubble surrounded by orange around Milwaukee doesn't make me feel to good (it's actually kinda funny to see on the map). What appears to be fewer acceptance updates for Milwaukee according to the reports don't make me feel that good either (though those updates can only tell so much about progress). :/ The wait continues!

I'm curious to see more of the fine print on this. The phone you trade in at the 13th month has to be in good working order and in good condition (no cracks, etc.). What are your options to upgrade early? What if the phone is damaged? Are you SOL? What if you want to keep the phone? Do you have the option of paying off the remainder of the device at that time? I'll be eligible for this based on the amount of time I'm in to my contract, but the phone (HTC EVO 4G LTE) I got when I started this contract term has suffered screen damage that I believe will not make it eligible for this program - it has pixels that appear to be discolored or as black spots on the screen. I did get a replacement device (iPhone 5) for myself, though not from Sprint, but I don't see much reason to upgrade to the 5S. I'd be interested in doing this sooner rather than later if I can ditch the EVO LTE, but not for the iPhone 5. I'm eligible for an upgrade in April anyway and the iPhone 5 is more than good enough to hold me off until then and even beyond that, really. Aside from that though, I think this is a good option. It's not really ever going to be a fantastic deal for the customer one way or another. No company is going to develop a program like this unless they've determined that they can make money off of it. The house will always win. However, there are people out there who are willing to pay more for the convenience and flexibility to upgrade early and I'll admit I am one of those people.

It looks like Milwaukee work is somewhat steady again from what I can see in the acceptance report updates. I wonder though if maybe the sites are ready but just not turned on yet? Maybe they're waiting to flip a switch so all coverage can come on at once and be reliable to some standard? I only think this to be true because the greater consistency and reliability will probably reduce the number of customer service calls. In any case, my data connection seems to be more reliable today than usual, that is I can use data more consistently. However, ping and speeds have not yet improved.

Where on the lakefront was this? I've noticed some LTE near Brady St. and Farwell, but it disappears quickly and I don't get it consistently when I'm walking around there. The one LTE speed test I was able to do wasn't that great either. Maybe it's a lot better now that more work has been done? I guess it depends on where on the lakefront you were at. I know the area around Brady St. has decent 3G, but once you get around North Ave. it's not so great. Edit: You posted just as I did. Nice to see LTE getting in to the Third Ward a bit. I haven't yet seen it there. Here's hoping we all see it more in the downtown area north of it!

Yeah, Milwaukee is definitely being upgraded a lot, as evidenced by the much slower data speeds and lower quality data connections (I couldn't even get email on my phone today). It's something we'll have to endure as the improvements are made. I've seen LTE pop up a few times in a couple spots, but nothing consistent yet (except Miller Park). Sprint's LTE is amazing where it does work, so it'll be great when it goes live here.

As others have mentioned, LTE at Miller Park is amaaaaazing. I did one test at the game on Sunday and got 17 Mb/s (~2100 KB/s) down and 5.45 Mb/s (681 KB/s) up. I was able to stream Pandora for a couple hours while tailgating and do all that fun social network checking regularly throughout the game with zero issues and for that 5-ish hour period I did all that, I used up maybe 30-40% battery life with all that heavy use. The improved network with its faster data speeds and improved signal is just going to be awesome. Better functionality AND much better battery life. Yes, please! Here's hoping the anticipated launch of this fall/winter will be a reality! If so, it'll be here before we know it. It's already September, after all.

Ohhh I knowwww. Some days it doesn't bother me while on others it's particularly infuriating. I know the updated network is on its way. The running deployment list and acceptance updates are encouraging too. I feel pretty confident that Sprint will be looking much better around the new year, if not sooner. Fingers crossed!

That's what I'm wondering. I sure haven't noticed any improvements in service either, so the updates must not have been in my area. If Sprint isn't working significantly better by the time my contract is up, I'm jumping ship. Data caps were never an issue for me before when I was on AT&T and unlimited data is really the only thing that'd keep me with Sprint now since their new plan pricing is more aligned to their competitors in terms of cost. I give AT&T a pass on their slow (depending on where you're at) LTE rollout because their 3G and Faux G is significantly faster and more reliable than Sprint's data. I could easily stream YouTube videos on AT&T. Sometimes even checking email requires a long wait or doesn't work at all on Sprint where I work. Most of the speed test results I get are sad or don't even finish. I'd get better service if I carried a laptop around and plugged in to a phone jack and used AOL (and I very much remember the speeds and ping I got with that because I played Counter-Strike and used the internet with it in ye olde days). I'm still opimistic though that we'll see improvements as the year goes on and I know there's a lot of obstacles and hoops that Sprint needs to navigate (permits, etc.) to get the work done, but it's just disappointing to be paying money (several hundred per year) for service I don't get and can't use. I know that weathering the storm will be worth it in the end, but the question is how long do we need to keep paying to weather the storm.

Argh, yeah. I saw 4G pop up the other day on my phone just as I was getting out of my car after I parked, but it disappeared almost right after. I have a feeling service is going to get progressively worse as the week goes on leading up to all the Harley-related festivities for this weekend. It doesn't help that Milwaukee hasn't seen much action in the recent acceptance report update posts.

I didn't mean for it to sound like I was saying it closed because of bad service. Service around the Brady St. area is actually pretty decent, but still slower than what I've experienced on AT&T. The people working there were always awesome too. I just mentioned it as an additional bit of info on how there's not really any Sprint stores in the downtown area.